Lessons from the Latin American Debt Crisis

Excellent article at Pieria. Here’s the tl;dr:

Three times over the past thirty years the major banks have actually been bankrupt. This is what we have learnt:

1. Short-term profits mean more to bankers than long-term risks.
2. As long as banks are willing to roll over debts, silly loans are not dangerous to anyone.
3. No matter how free market an ideologue a Central Banker is, he will overcome his inhibitions and do whatever it takes to save the big banks.
4. The first thing the central bankers need to do when the banking system is effectively bankrupt is hide this truth.

Tools Central Bankers have used:

• Get the taxpayers to buy the dumb loans from the banks.
• Cut the short-term rates so that banks can borrow cheaply while letting long term rates remain high. Since banks borrow short and lend long, this means their profits skyrocket.
• Impose austerity.

Read the whole thing here: LATIN AMERICA: THE ARCHETYPAL FINANCIAL CRISIS